Training Journal 4.24.08

I am so tired. So tiredly awesome.

Managed to do the fifteen-minutes-of-hell workout again this morning and felt pretty good about it. The awkwardness of using a duffel bag for certain exercises kind of mimicks the feeling of gripping someone’s gi sleeves in spider guard, oddly enough, since my hands aren’t pulling and pushing at the center of the weight like they are with a dumbbell. 

Evening training was a blast. Thursdays are technique-heavy days, because the head instructor teaches two technique classes in a row. In the first session (basic techniques) he taught a few things off the pendulum sweep – ways to finish into an armbar/triangle/other armbar. Nothing particularly special but worth drilling since I’ve had moderate success with the move. He did also teach a neat little trick when you’re going for the sweep (one arm under their opposite leg and all that) but they have good posture – he called it a tobitsuki (“flying”) triangle from the bottom, because you really get your hips up into and over them, then walk your body backwards to break their posture. Advanced technique session linked some X-guard stuff they teach every now and then to the guard pass we worked Tuesday and Wednesday, which made for a pretty dope sequence. Then we rolled for about ~40 minutes or so, and I got some good rounds off with Kuriyama, Amazon, and a few other blue belts. What really made my day, though, was the last ten minutes or so after class, where my instructor pulled me aside and showed me a few improvements I could make to the half-guard stuff I’ve been working lately – namely, the mistake I make when I go for the underhook that lets me get smashed flat, and some pointers on knee positioning and a neat little transition from the forearm-on-throat frame I’ve been playing with lately to prevent from getting smashed, where the emphasis is more on my elbow against their shoulder and my knee in their armpit. From there, I push with my hips and elbow (“just like the move you like, the hip sweep”, says the instructor), and when they push back down, rotate the elbow around and through to get the underhook and take their back. It’s like I’ve got a new toy!

pat m.